Tatiana - Imperial Ruler Of Dragon's

Chapter 12

It seems for most creatures residing in Edora differentiating themselves among clans is their general way of living, almost like humans differentiating themselves by countries and states. They hardly appear different from humans except for the fact that they control magic, appear different, and are governed by different rules.

Pulling the cotton shirt over my head, I frown at how the shirt hangs off my body limply. Considering our luggage was left on the plane I was unceremoniously thrown off, Katrina had borrowed some spear clothes from Gavin so I could wear them while we dwell here.

He’d been the only one whose clothes were big enough to fit me, but small enough that I wouldn’t be buried beneath. Troy’s build is too large for my petite figure, and Katrina had been insistent I put on Gavin’s clothes rather than her boyfriends. She's still pissed with me.

Which was fine by me, I still felt nothing but unease whenever I crossed paths with Troy which has thankfully been few.

Tucking the cream shirt into the fitted brown pants hanging off my waist and held up by a leather belt, I glance up when my makeshift door is pushed aside to reveal a smiling Gavin. Smiling in return, I threw my hair into a loose bun and nod when he asks. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah, just a sec.”

Picking up the blankets folded on the floor, I follow after him as he turns his back to leave. Together, we head out of the cave in silence into daylight.

Outside the entrance of the cave stood the female dwarf I’d met my first day on Edora, I learnt she’s Kimmy’s younger sister and one of the best warriors among their clan. She’s wearing the same clothes she wore when they came to our rescue and has a leaf sticking out of her mouth, the end of the small sepal gripped tight between her teeth. She turns at the sound of our approach and smiles slightly, her eyes focused on me with the same open curiosity she had on her face.

“Glad to see you all fine and good lassie, you left your friends here worried.” She states, tipping her head in Gavin’s direction as we stop a couple of feet before her.

Turning to Gavin, I smile when I see a bashful look appear on his face as he avoided looking my way but instead, fixed an annoyed glare at the dwarf. “Thanks, I’m glad to be up and about as well. You know I never got your name, I’m Tatiana.”

A sly look takes over her features as she gazes up at me. Spitting into her hand, she grins cheekily and held out her hand in return. Her grin widening at the look of disgust and horror on my face. “I’m Hilgar, put it there lassie.”

I didn’t know what to do or how to react, I don’t know the tradition of the dwarves or fae’s in general. Is this how they shake hands? Why is this how they shake hands? It’s so disgusting and unhygienic. I bite down on my lip in panic, as the silence grew longer and the seconds passed that I didn’t reach out I felt claustrophobic. Katrina already informed me it would be in my best interest not to mess with the dwarves or make them angry, as small as they appear their powers in weaving magic and manipulating it can be very dangerous for their enemies. I didn’t want to offend her by not reaching out but I also didn’t want to swap spits and hold hands.

Okay, I heard what I just said, and now I’m horrified and disgusted for a whole other reason.

“Hilgar, stop messing with her.” Gavin rolls his eyes, wrapping his hand around me in reassurance.

I frown when laughter slips out of the dwarves lips, her head thrown back and shoulder bouncing. Shaking his head Gavin leads me away from the amused fae and directs me towards the mountain trail leading downhill. “Excuse her, as a fae it’s within her blood to be an annoying creature. They like to mess with people a lot for their general amusement.”

“Why, that was so-” I huff in annoyance, unable to even come up with a word to describe how barbarous that was.

“Chill, it’s all part of being a fae. You’ll get used to it with time. Now come on, think less because we have a festival to attend.”

Letting my mind wander off to other things, I ignore the cheerful whistle coming from the dwarf trailing behind us and glance down the trail which has a clear view of the village communing down below. I smile because despite how small they appeared I could still see and slightly hear how creatures moved around in preparation for the festival. Katrina already informed me we set out tomorrow on our adventure which she still hasn’t elaborated much on.

What I could gather from conversations and the little snippets she revealed was, that our purpose for coming here is to travel to some Kingdom on the other side of the realm.

Our purpose for doing this, is what I have no idea about?

For tonight, we stay back and party with the dwarves in some kind of celebration called the Elysium moon ceremony. A ceremony celebrated under the bright shade of a full moon by all six Kingdoms of Edora. A whole night is spent drinking and dancing, and dedicated to praying for blessed paradise for the souls of the dead a few months before the Rooting Ceremony.

A ceremony Katrina and her friends refuse to elaborate on. All I know about it is, it’s a ceremony that happens every thousand years which opens up the barriers leading into Lĭætan. The realm of the afterlife. This barrier allows the souls of those deceased to safely pass into some kind of paranormal heaven and find peace for all eternity.

Despite the fog obscuring the moon, the fae’s are insistent on holding the ceremony even if most Kingdoms don’t bother. For it is a tradition they cherish and hold to be of great value.

A tap on our legs made us falter in our steps as the dwarf hurried ahead of us with an excited hoot. “Hurry up slow pokes, I don’t want Stilgar drinking up all the fine wine before I can get to it!”

Gavin and I exchange a look of amusement even though I have no idea who Stilgar is before we turned away with a roll of our eyes, a chuckle slipping out of our lips as we hurried in our steps after her. The village below the mountain is surrounded by a wooden fortress with an aligned palisade with sharp pointed tips and bound together by strewn straws. Standing on both sides of the wooden watchtowers, stood four dwarves standing guard to watch out for intruders and they nodded at us in greeting as we moved past the gates. Past the gates are unique looking stone houses, houses I didn’t even know were possible or could be in existence.

These stone houses are built between two giant stones with traditional components like a roof, front door, glass windows and a chimney. It has a pre-historic effect with an element of preserving nature.

Dwarves, of all shapes and sizes, greeted us as we walked past. A melodious hum sung among the villagers as preparations were made. Kids ran around with excited laughter, flowers decorated each stone house, leaves were used to create a path towards the centre of the village which has a large stake of wood piled upon one another to create a large bonfire, decorative paper lanterns dangled in the air, while wooden pools with glass jars used as a make-shift lamp outlined the edges of the leaves leading towards the village centre.

Female dwarves dressed in flowery gowns and twirled about with crowns of flowers woven into their beautiful locks of hair. Their feet’s bare but with a string of gold chain anklets wrapped around their ankles. While the males remained shirtless with white paint used to draw weird patterns and symbols across their chest, their cotton pants hanging off their hips and held right by woven leaves used as make-shift belts.

My hand was tugged unexpectedly and I glanced down to see the toothy smile of a small little dwarf, he has bright red hair with exceptionally beautiful blue eyes. “Come on.” He grins and tries to tug me along with him.

Surprised, I hesitate and glance at both Gavin and Hilgar who give me nothing but encouraging smiles. Smiling in return, I thrust the blanket in my arms into Gavin’s. “Tell Katrina I got held up!" I yell as I let the boy lead me away.

He takes me towards the large field where a bunch of kids his age played with a rolled-up leather ball, but rather than use their feet they instead used wooden sticks to pass it around. Kind of similar to a game of field hockey. He only needed a single player to make the match even and considering my height, and age, I’m sure he felt they’ll have a better advantage of winning judging by the ghastly looks on the faces of his opponents and the sly grins of his teammates.

I want to be offended by the thought that I’m being used, but they all look so cute that I just laugh along.